This research study focused on the lived experiences of administrators and the effect of the administrators’ disciplinary practices on the educational trajectory of African American students. The study is important because there is limited literature and research on
administrators’ perspectives and experiences regarding their disciplinary practices that significantly contribute to the educational trajectory of African American students.
Administrators are responsible to collect information from teachers and school personnel and determine appropriate actions to correct inappropriate student behavior. The decisions are based on a level of discretion and not always on rational or neutral facts. There is a widening
achievement gap correlated with the disproportionate discipline of African American students (Townsend, 2000).
A qualitative phenomenological study was determined to be the most effective way to examine the lived experiences of administrators to gather their perspectives related to their role in student discipline. This chapter provides an overview of the research approach and
methodology used in this study. Sections are titled Research Question, Research Method and Design, Appropriateness of Phenomenon Theory Design, District Selection and Description, Participants, Gatekeeper Consideration, Confidentiality Instrumentation, Data Collection, Data Collection Approaches, Ethical Issues, Data Analysis, Limitations of the Research Design, Role of the Researcher, Validity and Reliability, and Informed Consent.
Research Question Central Question
Subquestions
1. What are the administrators’ patterns of their experiences in disciplining African American students?
2. Do the administrators’ patterns of experiences demonstrate biases in the treatment of African American students that adversely affect their educational trajectory?
Research Method and Design
All research investigates something in a systematic manner. Qualitative research is exploratory research. It is conducted to gain an understanding of reasons, opinions, and motivations. Qualitative research is used to uncover trends in thoughts and opinions and to explore deep problems (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). Qualitative research uses an emerging qualitative approach to inquiry (Creswell & Poth, 2018). Qualitative data collection methods are unstructured or semistructured techniques such as focus groups, interviews, and participant observation. The sample size in qualitative research is typically small and respondents are selected based on their involvement in and knowledge of the subject area (Creswell & Poth, 2018). All qualitative research focuses on how people construct meaning based on their lives and the world around them (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). The goal of qualitative research is to uncover and interpret meaning (Creswell & Poth, 2018).
Phenomenology is a type of qualitative research focusing on experience and how
experiencing something is translated into consciousness (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). van Manen (2014) described phenomenology as the way to access the world as it is experienced reflectively. According to van Manen (2014), “Prereflective experience is the ordinary experience that we live in and that we live through for most, if not all, of our day-to-day existence” (p. 28). In this study, a phenomenological study design was used to gain an understanding of how
administrators make discipline decisions that determine the trajectory of African American students based on the administrators’ discipline policies and practices. The aim of the study was to understand how disciplinary decisions made by administrators affect students in their school careers. The researcher explored how discipline inequities and inconsistencies are applied to African American students more than to other groups of students. In a phenomenological study, the phenomenon to be explored is phrased in terms of a single concept or idea (Creswell & Poth, 2018). This study was an exploration of the concept of administrators’ discipline decision making and its impact on African American students.
The task of a phenomenological researcher is to set aside previously held beliefs so that they do not interfere with seeing the structure of the phenomenon (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). This is also known as bracketing. Merriam and Tisdell (2016) stated, “When belief is temporarily suspended, consciousness itself becomes heightened and can be examined in the same way that an object of consciousness can be examined” (p. 26). The goal of phenomenology is to present a new perspective through the lived experiences of the participants and not the researcher’s experiences. van Manen (2014) described this approach to phenomenological research as
hermeneutical phenomenology. Research is oriented toward a lived experience (phenomenology) and interpreted in the texts of life (van Manen, 2014). It is a study of concern that is of serious interest to the researcher. The focus is on themes that make up the lived experiences (Creswell & Poth, 2018). Moustakas (1994) described this as transcendental phenomenology, which is
focused less on the interpretations of the researcher and more on the description of the experiences of the participants. Like van Manen (2014), Moustakas (1994) focused on the concept of bracketing used to set aside the researcher’s experiences to focus on the ideas of the participants.
The phenomenological research study focuses on understanding individuals’ lived
incidents through unbiased broad dialogue and interaction (Creswell & Poth, 2018). The purpose of qualitative research is to describe, understand, and interpret human phenomena, human
interaction, or human discourse. According to Finlay (2011), “Unlike other research approaches phenomenology does not categorize or explain behavior nor does it generate theory. It seeks solely to do justice to everyday experience, to evoke what it means to be human” (p. 3).
In gathering accounts from participants relating to administrators’ decisions that
determine the trajectory of African American students, the researcher applied the epoche process. The epoche process is the suspension of one’s perceptions through clearing the mind and
allowing the formation of the phenomenon to come from the research participants’ experiences (Moustakas, 1994). According to Moustakas (1994), “The challenge of epoche is to be
transparent to ourselves, to allow whatever is before us in consciousness to disclose itself so that we may see with new eyes in a naïve and completely open manner” (p. 86).
Ontology
Ontology refers to one’s worldview and its effects on the way one sees and understand the world. Qualitative research is based on the belief that people gain knowledge from an activity, experience, or phenomenon (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). This is the opposite of
quantitative research, which is based on the belief that knowledge already exists and is waiting to be uncovered (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). Ontology is a philosophical idea that is focused on the nature of things and what currently exists. Knowledge of education leads the researcher to select this methodology because of lived experiences as a school site administrator. Ontology helps researchers to identify how certain they can be about the existence of what they are researching. Ontology is the study of being that centers on what exists in the world from which one can
acquire knowledge. This type of study is an exploration of what participants bring to the research based on their personal history, their views of themselves and others, and ethical issues (Creswell & Poth, 2018).
A qualitative researcher understands that a topic can be seen in many ways. It is the duty of the researcher to report various perspectives as themes emerge in the findings (Creswell & Poth, 2018). A qualitative researcher realizes that there are many realities related to a single topic. Evidence of themes that may support a different perspective is also reported. The final qualitative report shows how study participants can view their experiences differently (Moustakas, 1994)
Epistemology
Epistemology is the study of knowledge. Epistemology influences how researchers develop their research in the attempt to discover knowledge. Looking at the relationship between a subject and an object shows how epistemology influences research design (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). Constructivist epistemology prescribes to the philosophy that truth and meaning come from engagement with the realities that exist in the world (Creswell & Poth, 2018). The value of constructivist research generates an understanding of a defined topic or problem in context. The goal of the research relies on how a participant views a situation. A broad research question allows the researcher to construct meaning from a situation based on social interactions with others (Creswell & Poth, 2018). In a phenomenological study, individuals describe their experiences (Moustakas, 1994). The various experiences of participants showed how different administrators in this study viewed discipline practices and how these practices affected African American students.
Social constructivism is suitable for the study of the role of administrators in determining the trajectory of African American students based on the administrators’ discipline policies and practices. The participants in this study had personal views that sometimes differed and
sometimes were similar. Although they were administrators in the same district, how each viewed personal experiences varied in nature and contributed to the uniqueness of the study. Appropriateness of Phenomenon Theory Design
The research design was chosen based on the problem statement and the research questions. When there is limited information or inconsistencies in the literature, a qualitative approach is the appropriate research design. There is limited literature focusing on the research question presented in this study.
An appropriate methodology and design helped to choose the appropriate instruments to collect data. The qualitative phenomenological research methodology was appropriate for studying the role of administrators in determining the trajectory of African American students based on the administrators’ discipline policies and practices. The methodology allowed for the study of human behavior and experiences. Human science research allows for understanding the phenomenon and the consequences of its application.
The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the effect of administrators’ disciplinary practices on the educational trajectory of African American student based on the administrators’ discipline decisions. The qualitative research method was preferred to explore and find specific knowledge of the participants’ perceptions and to make a thorough
District Selection and Description
The school district in which the study was conducted is a mid-sized urban school district in southern California. The enrollment of the school district is approximately 25,500 students in Grades TK to 12. The ethnic make-up of the students in the district is as follows: Latino 84%, African American 10%, White 4%, and other 3%. The African American student population represents approximately 2,550 students in the district. The district is a Title I district with 80% of the students identified as coming from a low socioeconomic background (receiving free or reduced-price lunches). The district has 54 school site administrators who perform administrative duties in the role of principal or assistant principal at the elementary (TK through Grade 5), middle (Grades 6 through 8), and high school (Grades 9 through 12).
Participants
The participants in the study were 15 school site administrators who served at the elementary, middle, or high school levels. The administrators held the position of either school site principal or school site assistant principal. The study examined the lived experiences of the administrators and the effect of their disciplinary practices on the educational trajectory of African American students.
The research size was determined based on the chosen research method. When
conducting qualitative research, the sample size is smaller than that used in quantitative research. The selection of the sample size is an example of criterion sampling. The individuals used in the sampling have knowledge of the phenomenon and experience with the topic being researched. The selected individuals were chosen because they could inform an understanding of the research problem and the phenomenon being studied (Creswell & Poth, 2018).
The goal of qualitative research is not to generalize information (Creswell & Poth, 2018). The researcher can go more in-depth with a smaller sample size. Quantitative research is based primarily on random sampling and qualitative research focuses on a specific sample. The sampling strategy used in this study was criterion sampling. Criterion sampling is frequently used in qualitative studies. Criterion sampling looks for cases that meet the specific criteria of importance, which is useful for quality assurance (Creswell & Poth, 2018).
The sample population for this study involved administrators who work in the public school system and make discipline decisions. The goal was to include persons with knowledge of educational practices as they relate to discipline in order to study the unique occurrences,
incidents, or events of the research topic. The sampling included administrators who worked in the same urban public school district and made discipline decisions that affect students on a daily basis. These administrators work with a population of students that includes African American students at the elementary, middle, and high school levels.
The demographics of the participants included African American, White, and
Hispanic/Latino administrators. All participants possessed at least a bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree, a teaching credential, a credential in administration, and at least 3 years of administrative experience in a public school setting, either as an assistant principal or principal or both. Some participants held a doctorate in education. Recruitment of participants was based on the first 15 administrators to respond to the request to participate. The researcher invited the administrators who met the criteria to participate in the study. Recruitment letters were emailed and one telephone call was made personally to prospective participants who did not respond to the recruitment letter.
Gatekeeper Consideration
A letter was sent to the district superintendent’s office with a copy to the Educational Services Department requesting permission to conduct research in the district (Appendix A). The superintendent wrote a letter of approval for the study to be conducted in the school district (Appendix B). The school district’s approval was received and the University of Redlands Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval was granted (Appendix C). The district school site administrators were sent a personal introductory letter via email and a follow-up telephone call was made to answer questions regarding the study by prospective participants who did not respond to the introductory letter (Appendix D). The first 15 administrators who agreed to participate were given an informed consent form (Appendix E) that was explained to them. The interview protocol (Appendix F) was reviewed prior to the interviews with participants.
An interview is considered to be a social interaction based on a conversation. Knowledge is constructed from the exchange that occurs between the interviewer and the interviewee
(Creswell & Poth, 2018). The participants were exposed to minimal risks during the study. There was a time limit set for the interview (not to exceed 60 minutes) and a predetermined number of six interview questions to fit within the interview time limit. The interview participants were read an interview protocol prior to the interview taking place. The interview took place in a location that was comfortable for the participant without distractions and interruptions. After the interviews were completed, a debriefing form (Appendix G) was reviewed with each participant; it contained further information about the research topic and contact information for follow-up questions.
The participants were asked open-ended questions; their responses were recorded for accuracy and validity. The interviews were conducted in a semistructured style. During a
semistructured interview, the question is flexibly worded but there is a structured section to the interview. A semistructured interview allows responses to the situation at hand if new ideas emerge (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). Answers were listened to in order to capture experiences, perceptions, and philosophies of the administrators who make discipline decisions and policies that affect the trajectory of African American students.
There was good rapport between interviewer and respondents. The researcher was respectful and nonjudgmental and put the respondents at ease when answering questions. The process remained courteous, responsive, and respectful at all times throughout the interviews. By recording the interviews, the researcher was able to be an active listener during the interviews. Participants were allowed to express themselves and have their responses recorded to protect the authenticity of their ideas and voice.
Confidentiality
The term participant is used by the qualitative researcher to describe persons who are being studied and have expressed willingness to participate in the study (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). The participating administrators were not identified by name or by where they worked. The school district was not named in the study. The researcher assigned each participant a number to ensure anonymity and to maintain confidentiality. All interview notes and transcripts were stored in a locked file cabinet in the researcher’s home and will be shredded and destroyed 2 years after completion of the study.
Instrumentation
Due to the sensitive nature of the subject, the researcher used the interview process. It was determined that interviews would be the most appropriate research design for collecting data. Conducting interviews is a common approach to qualitative research. During the interview
process, the researcher established rapport with the participants. Each interview consisted of six open-ended questions relating to the administrator’s role in determining disciplining practices for African American students and their perceptions of these decisions on the trajectory of African American students. The questions focused on interactions between student groups, philosophical approaches to discipline, school policies, and discretionary discipline decisions. The interview participants were 15 school administrators at the elementary, middle, and high school levels who held the position of principal or assistant principal. The participants discussed their experiences in an urban public school district focusing on student discipline, African American students, and discipline policies and practices. The interviews were semistructured with six planned questions, but there was flexibility to modify the wording and order of the questions based on the
participant’s responses. Conducting interviews allowed the researcher to collect information with a detailed understanding of the topic. An interview allows for control over the order and natural flow of the questions (Creswell & Poth, 2018).
Data Collection
A phenomenological research study was conducted to identify the criteria used by administrators to determine how they discipline students. The research explored the discipline policies and practices and the effect of administrators’ disciplinary practice on the educational trajectory of African American students. It was also designed to identify the discipline biases and inequalities that might affect African American students. The research involved face-to-face, open-ended, in-depth interviewing and analysis of school administrators’ discipline practices. Phenomenological research focuses on lived experiences and how experiences transform into consciousness (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). Open-ended questions were used so that there would be a focus on listening to the respondent and the questions would take shape during the
discussion. Open-ended questions enabled the participant to speak freely, which allowed the researcher to gain insight into the topic. The data were collected face to face, as all participants lived and worked in the local area. Participation in the study was based on the first 15
administrators to respond to the request to participate. The particular demographics of the administrators who participated in the study varied based on years of experience, race, gender, and grade span.
Prior to researching a subject, the researcher usually has some experience with the phenomenon to explore a personal connection to the topic and to be aware of personal
prejudices, views, and assumptions (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). This process is called epoche. According to Moustakas (1994), “In the epoche, the everyday understandings, judgments, and